Edit WordPress Footer Credits Using The Genesis Child Theme

So you’ve started a new blog on Genesis, but you can’t change those darn footer credits..

In this tutorial I am going to walk-through with you on how to edit WordPress footer credits using the Genesis Child theme.

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Why You Should Edit The WordPress Footer Credits

It’s important to make your blog look as professional as possible. When people come to your blog, you want to make it as friendly and inviting as possible.

If you need help understanding WordPress, I’ve compiled a great list of WordPress tutorials on this blog that will make it easy for you to understand WordPress better. If you’re ready to rock your WordPress blog, then be sure to visit my page that will help you learn WordPress

I am going to show you 2 different methods you can use to edit your WordPress footer credits. One will require you to add a plugin to your blog. On the second method, we’ll be adding some code to our functions.php file to get the job done.

Watch Over My Shoulder As I Edit My WordPress Footer Credits On Genesis

I’ve created a video in case you’d rather watch me do this live. I realize that some of you would rather watch a video that follow my step-by-step tutorials.

It doesn’t matter which method you choose to use. The important thing is that you change out the default copyright on your blog.

Option 1: Using Genesis Custom Footer Plugin

Log into your WordPress blog and head on over to the plugins section. We are going to be installing a plugin called Genesis Custom Footer. If this is your first time installing a plugin, I’ve written a great tutorial that will help you understand how to work with them.

Here is an image of what the plugin looks like on the plugins install dashboard.

Warning: I’ve never used it for my own personal sites. It seems to work fine at the time of this writing. We all know that free plugins are not updated and supported as frequently as premium plugins. This means that some plugins are known to cause conflicts or may not play nicely with other plugins you are using. If you have any issues with this plugin or any other, login to your cPanel or FTP and delete it, or contact your hosting account.

Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin you want to head on over to Genesis >> Theme Settings

Scroll down until you see the box that says Genesis Custom Footer.

You can use any of the existing Genesis shortcodes or you can use HTML to create an awesome looking copyright for your blog.

Once you get your copyright text changed, you may want to consider adding some styles to it. I was able to edit the footer without any hiccups and this was my first time using it.

On my personal blog, I chose to customize my footer copyright using code. The great thing is that it really doesn’t matter if you don’t know PHP, you can always find help online regarding the Genesis Framework.

Option 2: Using Code to Edit Your WordPress Footer

For this option, you will need to access your WordPress files via your FTP client. I highly suggest setting up your blog on local host so you can test out your code. I love using Desktop Server to help me play around with WordPress. Adding the wrong code to your functions.php site can bring down your site in a flash.

Caution: Before making any type of changes to any of your WordPress files, make sure that you have a current backup. If you need to know how to make a backup, read my tutorial.

If you don’t feel comfortable using this method, I highly suggest you stick with the first method.

Once you’re in your child theme folder, open up your functions.php file.

We will be adding this code to our footer. I am not a true PHP developer, but I can find code online and get what I need accomplished. If you’re looking for some code to add to your footer, check out this site.

Add the code to the bottom of your functions.php file. Save the file and refresh your page, you should now see your new footer for your site.

This is what my code looks like on my site.

I am a big fan of trying to do a lot of things without a plugin, whenever possible.

Here’s what my footer looks like with my footer text changed.

As you can see, it looks totally different than the footer I created in the first method. I’ve used CSS to style my footer the way that I want.

This tutorial does not go over how to style your footer credits. I just wanted to walk you through the process of how to change your footer credits.

Final Take Away

I’ve tried to make this tutorial as easy as possible to follow. As I mentioned, I am not a PHP developer, so please don’t ask me questions regarding PHP. I just find code online and am able to get what I want to be accomplished and share it with you.

That’s one of the great things about using WordPress. So many people are willing to share their code. While I don’t recommend testing code out on your live blog. I do however recommend setting up a testing site on your localhost.

If you need PHP help for your Genesis child theme, I suggest you visit the Genesis forums. They will be able to get your questions answered.

Child Themes: Take your time and browse all the available child themes you can choose from. If you’re buying an individual theme, you won’t get access to all their themes.

StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package: You understand that your blog is your business. It’s important for you to have access to over 90 child themes you can use in your business without paying another penny.

Genesis Features: Read through all the features before you make a buying decision. There’s nothing wrong with taking your time to do some research before you make a buying decision.

Visual Hooks Guide: Visually see the hooks in your Genesis theme. (this is for the advanced users or people who want to get more indepth with Genesis)

ShareASale: ShareASale is one of my favorite affiliate networks. It’s free to sign up and they have tons of advertisers that make it easy for any blogger to make money through affiliate marketing.

SEMRush: This tool is amazing and has helped me increase my organic traffic. It is expensive, so don’t pay for it every month. When I’m NOT using it, I’m using KWFinder to help me with my keyword research.

About Susan Velez

Hi! I'm Susan welcome to my blog. Are you ready to use the Internet and a computer to change your finances? I share tips to help you make money online through blogging, side hustles and other non-traditional methods learn moreTwitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube

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Comments

Fabulous tutorial, Susan! I’m a huge fan of Genesis Simple Edits and Simple Hooks to do editing on my themes. I’m glad to see that there is another for just the footer. Knowing how to edit the coding is probably the best way to go, as you know, too many plugins can wreak havoc on our blogs.

This is a great tutorial Susan! Thanks for putting this together for us. I love how detailed it is. 🙂 I remember how scared I was touching the codes – now I go in there and play around with it like nothing. Grant it I still mess stuff up – that’s how I learn ;). My dummy blog sure has been through the ringer. 🙂

Thanks for telling us about the plugin. It’s good to know there’s something available.

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